Wednesday, February 13, 2008By Emily Ingram
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Authorities have obtained murder arrest warrants for two men in the June shooting death of Bellmead animal control officer Bobby Evans.
Bellmead police officers served James Terry Ramirez, 43, with a murder warrant at the McLennan County Jail, where he is being held on drug charges, said Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon.
Officials will serve Jerry Mack Newland, 31, today with a murder warrant in Palestine, Texas, where he is serving a 10-year prison sentence for drug offenses, Cawthon said.
Evans was shot in the back on June 18 as he was bringing a dog to the remote animal shelter on Dugger Drive in Bellmead. Officials said at the time there was no sign of a struggle, and they were not aware of any previous threats made against Evans.
Ramirez and Newland were named in a search warrant affidavit obtained by Bellmead police in December to search three locations, including the county jail property room. The searches yielded two .45-caliber rounds, three .22-caliber rounds, four .38-caliber rounds and one size 10 1/2 Ozark Trail hiking boot, officials said. However, the items seized were not useful to the investigation, they said.
Authorities suspected the two killed Evans during their search for an anhydrous ammonia tank stashed near the animal shelter, according to the search warrant affidavit. Anhydrous ammonia can be used to make methamphetamine, a powerful, highly addictive stimulant.
Court documents say a witness said Evans, 47, a husband, father and grandfather, was killed “for no reason.”
Evans’ wife and daughter welcomed Tuesday’s news, though they said knowing Evans’ death was unnecessary hurts.
Debbie Evans said she is relieved someone will be held accountable for her husband’s death. She is thankful to investigators for finding out what happened to her husband, even though the answers don’t diminish her pain.
“It doesn’t change the fact that he’s not here,” she said. “I’m still questioning. How could this have happened? He was killed for no reason.”
Bellmead Police Chief Robert Harold said he and his investigators are happy if the charges comfort Evans’ survivors.
“We certainly want to thank the investigators who helped in this case, especially the inspector general’s office, the Texas Rangers and our own detectives who worked so hard so that we could feel comfortable now to issue these murder warrants,” Harold said.
According to court documents, Ramirez and Newland were at the animal shelter the day of the shooting to find the hidden ammonia tank and feared Evans had seen them.
According to records filed in the case, an unidentified “informant” told investigators Ramirez kept calling someone June 18 in a determined effort to find anhydrous ammonia.
A person identified by records as a witness told Ramirez the anhydrous ammonia tank was near the animal shelter.
Ramirez searched the location in vain before calling the witness, who later told authorities that he and Newland drove to Dugger Road to help in the search.
About that time, Evans drove up and Ramirez said he was afraid Evans saw him, according to the affidavit. Ramirez and Newland followed Evans to the building where one of them shot him in the back, records state. The records do not indicate which man fired the fatal shot.
After the shooting, Ramirez disassembled the handgun and put the pieces, along with some clothing, into three black trash bags, according to the records. He later allegedly threw one of the trash bags onto land on Old Mexia Road, which later was searched by authorities.

I present you the definition of "Police Officer" as defined under the Pa. "Dog Law" :

"Police officer." Any person employed or elected by this Commonwealth, or by any municipality and whose duty it is to preserve peace or to make arrests or to enforce the law. The term includes constables and dog, game, fish and forest wardens.

Quote:

Uncle Fester wrote: And Texas executes cop-killers.....

I only wish Pa. would enforce its death penalty when it comes to cop killers.
Mumia Abu Jamal was convicted in 1982 of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, 26 years later this piece of $#%t is still having appeals heard instead of rotting in a hole in the ground.

__________________
The greatest truths are the simplest;
and so are the greatest men. (unk)

Light travels faster than sound,
which is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Texas penal code
§ 19.03. CAPITAL MURDER. (a) A person commits an offense if the person commits murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
(1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

Article 2.12, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure

Art. 2.12. WHO ARE PEACE OFFICERS. The following are peace officers:
(1) sheriffs, their deputies, and those reserve deputies who hold a permanent peace officer license issued under Chapter 1701, Occupations Code;

I do not personally know any ACO who holds a permanent peace officer license issued under Chapter 1701, Occupations Code. However, Bobby worked out of the Bellmead FD, so he may actually qualify as a Fireman.

__________________
There are no problems, only challenges and opportunities.

Indictments Returned In Death of Central Texas Animal Control OfficerPaul J. Gately, KWTX, December 18, 2008

The McLennan County Grand Jury returned two murder indictments late Thursday in connection with the murder of a Bellmead animal control officer in 2007.

Jerry Mack Newland, 31, James Terry Ramirez, 43, were named in indictments. Newland is serving a 10-year sentence at the Joe F. Gurney Unit in Tennessee Colony for possession of methamphetamine and Ramirez has been in custody at the McLennan County Jail, where he has been held on unrelated charges since August.

The arrests "put a lot of hearts at rest," said Louisa Muniz of the Bellmead police department. According to a search warrant affidavit in late December, an unnamed informant told police that Ramirez and Newland killed Evans in June 2007.

Court documents state the two men were looking for materials used to make methamphetamine near the Bellmead animal shelter as Evans returned with an animal he had picked up.

The affidavit says Ramirez and Newland followed Evans around the building and then shot him to death. The affidavit quoted an informant as saying Ramirez and Newland "killed that man for no reason."

When asked if Evans was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Fred Reha of the Office of Inspector General replied, "He was in the right place at the wrong time. He was doing his job."

I was thinking of this today. I went to a location yesterday and one of the neighbors was telling me all this stuff about the cops having the place under surveillance etc, but the dispatcher didn’t know anything about it, so I just blew him off. A detective flagged me down this morning and told me the people at that house are members of the Arian brotherhood, it is known to the PD as a drug house, one of the residents is implicated in a triple homicide and the house is indeed under surveillance. He also advised me to be very careful when I go to that house, but fortunately, nobody ever answers the door there.

Did I mention that they have a pit? But don’t they all?

__________________
There are no problems, only challenges and opportunities.

Looking at those guys' mug shots is a puzzle to me. They look like people, don't they? Kind of rough types, but no rougher than a lot of guys standing around a construction site drinking coffee. You could imagine them standing in line next to you at McDonald's or the bus stop. And yet they actually shot that officer dead, for nothing. And now, with any luck at all, their entire lives are gone too.

"What is the meaning of it, Watson?" said Holmes solemnly ... "What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" (1917)

__________________
Winnie

It's not what we have in our life, but who we have in our life that counts. (J.M. Lawrence)